I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing horticultural plants such as orchid. The method and apparatus of the present invention are especially suited for overseas transportation or truckage of the horticultural plants by placing the plants in a container, enhancing the growth and keeping the qualities of the plants, thereby assuring the proper qualities of the plants after taking the plants out of the container.
II. Description of the Related Art
For the transportation of vegetables, fruits and horticultural plants, it is important for keeping the freshness of the products. As for vegetables and fruits, methods for transporting and storing the products for a considerably long time keeping the freshness of the products have been developed (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application (Kokai) Nos. 2-71074 and 2-71077). These methods include controlling of temperature and humidity and circulating air in the container by generating breeze.
Although the conventional methods are almost satisfactory from the practical viewpoint for transporting or storing vegetables and fruits, only unsatisfactory results are obtained even if the conventional methods are applied to the storage of flowers such as orchid. Due to the lack of an effective method for storing or transporting flowers such as orchid, by which the freshness of the flowers is kept, the foreign trade of the flowers is not so common in spite of the considerable demand for flowers with roots and cut flowers. Thus, means for storing or transporting horticultural plants keeping their freshness is demanded.